640 Col. R. Meinertzbagen on Birds from [Ibis, 



for females 100. Minimum wing for males 1>9, and for 

 females 94. Culmen of males from all localities 20-22 mm. 



Tbe outer tail-featber is very variable, birds from the 

 Jordan Valley and Sinai having usually the base of the 

 outer web dark, and merely a dark wedge on the proximal 

 portion of the inner web. Birds from Solium usually have 

 the outer tail-feather with a great deal of dark colouring on 

 the inner web, but only the base of the outer web is dai'k ; 

 but such variation is never constant in any area^ and every 

 degree of intermediate design is found. 



G. c. hrachyura occurs in the lower Jordan Valley to well 

 north of Jericho and at Nablus in the northern Judajan 

 hills. Round both shores of the Dead Sen, tliroughout 

 Sinai, and in southern Palestine from Ludd south. On the 

 Suez Canal from Port Said to Suez, on Borollos beach 

 (northern Egyptian Delta), at Mersa Matruh and Solium 

 west of Alexandria, and at the Wadi Natrun. The fact that 

 birds inseparable from hrachyura occur in Italian Eritrea 

 and at Port Sudan compel me to place Zedlitz's name eritrew 

 as a synonym of brachyura. I cannot agree with Sclater 

 and Praed ('Ibis/ 1918, p. 607) that Port Sudan birds 

 should be united with altirostris (nubica of Biauchi). 



Farther west towards Tripoli occur various races of 

 Crested Larks, the only ones which might be contiguous to 

 brachyura being macrorliynclia and arenicola. These races, 

 which I am unable to distinguish one from the other, are 

 larger than brachyura in both wing and culmen, though very 

 similar in colour. 



Galerida cristata somaliensis Bianchi. 



10 birds from sea-level at Berbera, all obtained in autumn 

 and winter, appear paler than brachyura and have a thicker, 

 heavier, but not longer culmen. 



6 males have wings 99-105 and culmens 19-22. 



4 females have wangs 94, 95-99 and culmens 19-20*5. 



A pair in my collection from Luke Rudolf appear exactly 

 similar to somaliensis : male, wing 105, culmen 18*5 ; female, 

 wing 102,' culmen 19. 



